Ok, so I freely admit that I may or may not have an unholy a slight obsession with celebrity chef and New York Times best selling author, Rocco DiSpirito.   I was a faithful fan of his former TV show The Restaurant and I never missed an episode of The Biggest Loser when he would be on cooking for the contestants.   I stalk follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.  I’m also a major fan of his cookbooks, especially his latest books,  Now Eat This and Now Eat This Diet which are awesome!

Given I’m such a fan, I’m definitely excited for the debut of his new TV show tomorrow night called Rocco’s Dinner Party which airs on the Bravo network.  The premise of the show is three chefs will be given the chance to compete for a shot at preparing a dinner party for Rocco and his hand-picked celebrity guests.  Sounds fun!  I’ll definitely be tuning in, what about you?

In celebration of the success of his Now Eat This book series and the new show, Rocco has launched his “Win It! Cook It!” sweepstakes on his Facebook page.  One lucky fan is going to enter a collection of some of Rocco’s favorite kitchen tools valued at over $2,600!!  According to the contest rules (PDF link), the grand prize collection includes things like a Vita-Prep blender from Vita-Mix, cookware from the Mauviel M’cook line, a couple of pieces of Le Creuset cookware, and assorted kitchen tools like knives, a grater, etc.  Wow, I would *love* to win!!  In addition to the grand prize, ten other winners will receive a personalized signed copy of Now Eat This! Diet. How cool is that?!

Are you planning to watch the show?  Will you be entering his giveaway?  Actually, I kind of hope you don’t enter the giveaway because I really want to win.   However, I do hope you watch the show though so we can chat about it on Twitter Thursday!   The show premieres tomorrow night (June 15) and will air each Wednesday evening at 11pm ET/8pm PT on the Bravo network (channel 237 on DirecTV).

Until next time …

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Before I get to the primary purpose of this post, I just want to take a moment to say thank you for all of the wonderfully amazing support for my original Exposed post and my Exposed Movement Revisited post from yesterday. I’m continually blown away by the incredible support among the health & fitness blogger community. I wish I could reach through the interwebs and just give you all a big hug in person! Thanks for being out there!

Now, on to the business at hand. It’s Wednesday, so that means it’s time to check-in for the Power of One challenge over at the Sisterhood. Normally when I participate in the Sisterhood challenges, I just use my weekly weigh in from my Weight Watchers meeting. I decided to go a different route this time, so I’m doing an “unofficial” weigh in at home each Wednesday for the challenge. The progress information in my sidebar and on the Progress page will both still reflect my “official” weigh in at Weight Watchers each Saturday.

How did I do in the first week of the challenge? **Drum roll please**

Challenge Starting Weight: 274.0
Current Weight: 269.6
Weekly Loss: 4.4
Total Challenge Loss: 4.4

I lost 4.4 pounds! Admittedly, I did have a bit of post-Christmas fluff last week when we started. The good news? It’s gone now! If I can drop just a little bit more between now and Saturday when I go to WW, I might even earn my 15 pound star since rejoining. I’ll also be earning my 16-week award this Saturday, so that means I’m averaging about a pound per week. Given I had an inexplicablely massive gain one week, and gained just over a pound over the Christmas/New Year holiday, I’m pretty pleased with those results!

I’m really hoping to bump things up a bit now that we’re done with all of the holiday craziness. I won’t have another big temptation until probably my birthday in mid-February, but I don’t think that will even be a problem as I don’t really have anything planned. Valentine’s Day definitely won’t be a problem since I don’t have a sweetheart.

The assignment this week is to write a letter to current self from our 2012 self looking back at how our year went. I’m still working on mine, but I’ll post it as soon as it’s finished. I’m really hoping for a lot of good things this year, so hopefully I won’t disappoint my 2012 self next January.

In other good news today, Trish and I were each the lucky winners each a pair of Lucille bike shorts from BornFit. It was part of a contest they were having on Facebook in celebration of the new year. I already own a couple of Wilder running skorts from BornFit and love them. I’m really looking forward to trying out their bike shorts, too. They should be great for spinning!

Ok, that’s it for now. Until next time …

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In case you haven’t heard, the folks from I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! will be having a BBQ Taste & Tweet party tomorrow night, July 26, from 8-10pm ET. If you enjoy grilling, you should definitely plan to attend!

Taste & Tweet will be a fun evening of eating, Tweeting, and sharing grilling and entertaining tips with fellow participants and grilling and entertaining co-hosts: @GrillCompanion (www.grillingcompanion.com) who will be sharing their grilling expertise and answering questions on all of your barbeque and grilling questions to help you grill like a pro, and entertaining expert, @HWTM_Jenn (www.hostesswiththemostess.com), who will be sharing her insider tips on how to throw the perfect outdoor party and back yard barbeque this summer. Chef Normajean Longfield from the Unilever Test Kitchen will also be Tweeting with @ICBINotButter to give you tips on all of the great ways to spray I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!

Since I’m a long-time fan of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! spray, I was honored to be selected as an invited participant to the Taste & Tweet. They even hooked me up with a nice promotional grilling kit package which included a set of tongs, a corn dish with adorable cob holders, a coupon for a free bottle of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! spray, and a $25 gift card to purchase supplies for a cookout. They also included a sheet of summer grilling recipes using the spray. Check it out!

This package is just a precursor of the big prizes they’ll be giving away during the Taste & Tweet. Two lucky people attending the Taste & Tweet will win an awesome gift package including a Weber Smokey Joe grill, an I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! grill basket, and a four-piece grill set from Crate & Barrel. The retail value of each prize package is $125. Click here to find out how to enter and for the full sweepstakes rules.

So, if you enjoy grilling and are trying to follow a healthy eating lifestyle, be sure to check out the Taste & Tweet tomorrow night! Until next time …

Disclosure: I received the grilling kit for participating in and promoting this event. No monetary compensation was provided. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

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I posted about this last month, but thought I would post a reminder since there is still time to enter. If you like to cross stitch, the folks over at Janlynn are having a really cool contest. They have paired up with Joey, creator of the Dolly Mamas line, to let a lucky winner come up with a new Dolly-ism for an upcoming design. Here is a video clip with more info:

The contest runs until November 30, 2009. You can find the full details on how to enter on the Janlynn contest page. As a teaser, I will tell you that they’ll be awarding a total of five (5) prizes:

• One (1) Grand Prize: $900 cash + $100 Janlynn online gift certificate + winner’s name on the box of the winning design
• Four (4) Runners-up: Each will receive a $100 Janlynn online gift certificate

I’ll continue to leave a banner link over in the side bar of my blog until the end of the contest. So, put on your thinking caps & pull out your snarky best (I know you all have it in you ). Come up with the perfect new Dollyism, and you just might be the winner.

Until next time …

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If you like to cross stitch, the folks over at Janlynn are having a really cool contest. They have paired up with Joey, creator of the Dolly Mamas line, to let a lucky winner come up with a new Dolly-ism for an upcoming design. Here is a video clip with more info:

The contest runs until November 30, 2009. You can find the full details on how to enter on the Janlynn contest page. As a teaser, I will tell you that they’ll be awarding a total of five (5) prizes:

• One (1) Grand Prize: $900 cash + $100 Janlynn online gift certificate + winner’s name on the box of the winning design
• Four (4) Runners-up: Each will receive a $100 Janlynn online gift certificate

I’ll leave a banner link over in the side bar of my blog until the end of the contest. So, put on your thinking caps & pull out your snarky best (I know you all have it in you ). Come up with the perfect new Dollyism, and you just might be the winner.

Until next time …

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